1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and article of manufacture for validating an encryption key file on removable storage media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data stored on removable tape cartridges may be encrypted by an encryption engine to protect the data. Data encryption is especially useful for businesses that store personal data on their customers. Recent government regulations place requirements and legal obligations on companies storing personal data to report missing data or prevent the data from being stolen.
One concern with encrypting data on a tape cartridge is maintaining and managing copies of encryption keys for numerous tape cartridges encrypted with different encryption keys. In the current art, a host system coupled to the tape drive may utilize a database or other data structure to associate encryption keys and storage cartridges whose data was encrypted with the associated encryption key. However, if the database table becomes corrupt or is lost, then the data on the tape cartridges cannot be recovered.
There is a need in the art for improved techniques for managing encryption keys for removable storage media, such as tape cartridges.